The British have officially closed. It might be a few more hours before we have an official result.

The population will elect 650 Members of Parliament (MP), but the Conservatives need 326 seats in order to form a government. They currently hold 330, but some polls have shown the party losing enough seats to sit below the threshold.

Exit polls have shown that the Conservatives have lost seats, but still maintain the majority.

I will update this post as information rolls in.

Results

Counting will begin once the polls close. If the results are a landslide, we could receive votes as early as 1:30AM local time (8:30PM EDT). But it could go late into the night, as late as 4-5AM local time (11PM-12AM EDT).

Home Secretary survives!

After at least five recounts, Home Secretary Amber Rudd has secured her seat.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd keeps her seat by just 300 votes. At the 2015 election she had a majority of 4,796. Phenomenal.

As I’ve said before, a party in the UK needs 326 seats to form a government. Anything less than that is called a hung parliament and no party wins the election. The BBC has a great Q&A guide to what happens. Here are a few snippets:

In a hung parliament, the Conservative government will remain in office – and Theresa May can live in Downing Street – until it is decided who will attempt to form a new government or unless she decides to resign.

There will be another frenzied round of talks between the party leaders and their negotiating teams, as they try to put together another coalition government or a looser deal to put either Mrs May or Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (the only two people with a realistic chance) into power as prime minister.

Or one of the two party leaders could opt to go it alone and try to run a minority government, relying on the support of smaller parties when needed to get their laws passed.

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Theresa May can stay on as prime minister while she tries to put a majority together.

If it becomes clear that she can’t and Jeremy Corbyn can then she will be expected to resign. Mr Corbyn would then become the prime minister.

But the Labour leader does not have to wait until Mrs May has exhausted all her options before he starts trying to put a deal of his own together. He can hold talks with potential partners at the same time as Mrs May. They may even be talking to the same people.

The Conservatives have failed to take one of their top target seats in Wales, casting further doubt about whether Theresa May will win a substantial majority. Labour MP Ian Lucas held on in Wrexham, with both Jeremy Corbyn’s party and Theresa May’s party up around 5,000 votes. The ConservativeHome website described the seat as “one of the party’s top targets” because of the area’s high Leave vote, estimated to be 58 per cent. Labour ultimately increased its majority by one vote in the seat. More follows…

The Conservatives have failed to take the crucial bellwether seat of Darlington from Labour, dashing hopes of a serious majority for Theresa May Jeremy Corbyn’s party instead increased its majority by 100 in the seat, which was one of the Tories’ key targets in the North East, where they were hoping to benefit from the Leave vote. Political scientist John Curtice said: “Darlington was meant to be the seat that showed us Theresa May was heading for a majority and instead Labour have held it.”

The SNP vote has collapsed, according to the exit poll. The party is expected to lose almost half of his seats in the election, according to the new data. It will lose 22 seats in the election, taking it down to 34, according to the poll.

Will Calling for a Snap Election Come Back & Bite May?

It’s possible! Support for May and the Conservatives have tumbled a lot since April. ABC News reported:

“One is that there was a terrible reaction to the Conservative policy proposals on social care,” Stephen Fisher, associate professor in political sociology at the University of Oxford, told ABC News. “Around the same time Theresa May’s performances in press conferences and her campaigning style were not as polished as Jeremy Corbyn’s so people warmed a lot to Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party and were less impressed with the Conservatives.“

An average of opinions polls published by the Economist shows the Conservative Party leading with 44 percent of voters’ support to Labour’s 36 percent, but support for the Labour Party has been rising steadily since April — by some 10 points, according to the average.

Some polls suggest such a close election that a hung parliament becomes a possibility — meaning that no single political party has an absolute majority, which would raise questions about who will govern the U.K. in the future, he said.

Heightened Security

Due to the numerous terrorist attacks, the government has amped up security at polling stations. From The London Times:

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Lucy D’Orsi, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for protective security, said: “Security around polling stations is constantly being reviewed and updated by local police forces. Plans are in place to make sure that resources are appropriately allocated. We appreciate that these are unprecedented times and together with our partners we continue to keep communities safe.”

Forces across the country reported an increased police presence, and while no specific threats were announced, the public was asked to remain vigilant and report suspicious behaviour. The nationwide terror threat remains “severe”, meaning another attack is “highly likely”.

British Tradition! Dogs at Polling Stations

It has become a British tradition to bring a dog to the polling station. Even The Telegraph doesn’t know when this started or why people do it, but the Twitter hashtag #DogsAtPollingStations remains popular.

Europe is and always will be Europe. What I mean is that it’s a mistake to compare political shifts and movements in the US to what is happening in Europe. It’s why I always chuckled to myself seeing news stories about how Le Pen was going to pull a ‘Trump’ or similar comparisons between US and European politics.

There is no Tea Party there. Their idea of ‘Conservative’ bears no relationship in the slightest to ours, beyond a coincidence of naming. Without a single exception, no movement or desire exists to restore limited, constitutional government in all of western Europe.